Hostage
by Tensai55
Summary: It was a perfectly normal day, a good one even, until Matthew received a disturbing phone call...


**Hostage**

_By: Tensai55_

...

It had started out as a lovely day. The sun was shining and it was warm out, but not too hot. Matthew had woken to find that his polar bear friend had wandered off during the night, which meant that he wouldn't have to worry about cleaning maple syrup out of his companion's fur (the bear always insisted on eating pancakes drenched in syrup for breakfast and never failed to get it all over his fur). He wasn't too worried. Kumanichi would come back around lunchtime (and usually demand that the northern nation make pancakes for lunch as well). However, when lunch rolled around and Kumatarou was nowhere to be found, Matthew felt the slightest niggling of worry start to bother him. But the arrival of Arthur soon put all thoughts of his wayward pet out of his mind.

Arthur would do this occasionally - randomly set aside a day to spend with the Canadian (Matthew figured it was because the English nation had the bad habit of forgetting about him, and sometimes the Briton would even forget to inform Matthew that he was coming until the day of). Matthew never minded much, he knew it was Arthur's way of showing he cared. So, now they were sitting in Matthew's living room, drinking tea and making small talk while Matthew waited for Arthur to get to the reason for his visit (and tried to come up with good excuses not to eat any of the scones Arthur had brought with him. Matthew honestly couldn't figure out how the island nation managed to get them past customs when it was obvious from the fumes the noxious things emitted that they were highly toxic). Luckily for the soft-spoken country, his phone began ringing just as he ran out of viable reasons.

"Hello?" Matthew answered without looking at the caller ID, desperate for any reason not to eat the biological weapons his former guardian called food. His gratitude was immediately halved when he realized just who was on the line.

"Hey Mattie!" Came his overly enthusiastic brother's voice. "How's it goin'?" Matthew could practically hear the smug mischief in his twin's voice. He glanced back at the scones, wondering silently if it would be less torturous to eat them than deal with whatever his brother was up to... Nevermind, there was no way Alfred could come up with something worse than Arthur's cooking (The worst part was that Arthur was actually trying, without success, to make edible food. Matthew shuddered to think what sort of horror might result from a deliberate attempt at deadly food).

Matthew opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the obnoxious American. "I have Kumajirou."

"Who?" Was Matthew's immediate response. "Oh, you mean Kimikichi. That's good. I was starting to wonder where he is." Honestly, Alfred was so annoying at times (most of the time, actually). How hard was it to remember a name like Karakimi?

"Um, right." Alfred replied, "Anyway, if you ever want to see your bear again, you better-" Alfred's voice cut off abruptly and Matthew heard him growl at someone in the room. "What? I'm busy demanding your ransom here!"

Softer, so quiet that the shy nation could barely hear it, a voice that sounded vaguely familiar asked sleepily, "Who are you?"

There was silence or almost an entire minute before his southern neighbor said, "You know what, Mattie? Forget I said anything." Then the blonde raised his voice, "Tony! Fire up the grill! We're having roast bear for supper."

"WHAT?" Matthew yelled into the phone, horrified by the recent turn of events. "No, wait, Alfred, don't-" The steady pulsing of the dial tone cut him off as his brash twin hung up.

"Matthew?" Arthur called from the other room. "Is something wrong?"

"Sorry, Arthur!" Matthew said in a rush as he ran for the front door. "I've gotta go save Kimitaka from Alfred!" He paused long enough to grab his keys from their peg by the door then continued his mad sprint to the border.

"Er, right then." Arthur said uncertainly, clutching his tea cup. "I'll just wait here, I guess..."

Several hours later an unremarkable fuel efficient car with Canadian license plates swerved into the driveway of a residence belonging to one Alfred F. Jones. For a minute, Matthew just sat behind the wheel, trying to calm himself before confronting his aggravating brother, hoping he wasn't too late. He wasn't quite sure how many traffic laws he had violated, probably most of them (and he thought he might have caused a few accidents as well), in his frantic drive to his brother's house. As he approached the front door, Matthew heard a whoop come from the backyard. Sighing, he made his way to the back of the house.

He wasn't quite sure what he'd expected, but his brother jumping on him as soon as he entered the gate and yelling "Surprise! Happy Birthday, Mattie!" in his ear was definitely not even on the list. He glanced around the backyard which was obviously done up for birthday party. There were red and white streamers everywhere and a large banner that wished him 'Happy Birthday.' On his brother's picnic table was a three-layer cake with a large red maple leaf on it. (He ignored the disgruntled alien standing next to it, having obviously been forced to wear a paper party hat.) Glancing at Alfred's pool, Matthew saw that the American had actually put a party hat on the whale that lived in the pool. The younger twin swallowed heavily, trying without much success to blink back tears. Alfred had done all of this for him?

A bump against the back of his legs interrupted his musings. Glancing down, the longer-haired brother saw his missing companion looking at him quizzically, the paper hat perched on one of his ears slightly bent and bearing teeth marks. "Kirakichi!" Matthew exclaimed and immediately knelt to embrace his lost pet, ignoring the answering, "Who?"

Alfred laughed and said, "I wouldna really hurt him, you know." When Matthew turned to look at the taller blonde, Alfred looked away, blushing. "I know you really care about 'im an' all." Alfred mumbled quietly as though he were ashamed to admit such a thing.

Matthew laughed quietly. "Thank you, Al." He was further amused to see his normally boisterous brother's blush darken.

Much later, Alfred and Matthew were cuddled up on Alfred's couch watching an old action movie. Tony had long since escaped to the basement and Kurotana was curled up, fast asleep in an old loveseat. "I really do appreciate you going to all this effort for me, Al." Matthew said during one of the boring plot development scenes (because for some reason the only interesting things in action movies were the fights and explosions). "Even if it is late."

"...What are you talking about?" Alfred replied, giving his little brother a confused look. "Today's your birthday, how can the party be late?"

Matthew abruptly sat up and pulled away from the American. "Al, my birthday was last week. It's three days before yours, remember?" His hard stare turned into an outright glare as the oblivious blonde gave him a blank stare.

"It is?" Alfred said stupidly. When the normally docile northern country actually growled, Alfred physically recoiled from his brother. "I'm sorry! I musta gotten the dates confused! I swear I didn't mean to!" He cried out in a panic. It was never a good thing when Matthew got angry. Alfred would never forget the three hour lecture on everything the Canadian didn't like about him. Just remembering it made him want to start crying.

At the sight of his 'fearless' brother cowering in fear of him, Matthew found he couldn't stay mad at Alfred. At least he'd remembered it at all this year, even if he did have the date wrong. "It's alright, Al." He sighed. "I'm not that mad about it. But what made you think it was today?" He asked, curious. The quiet nation couldn't really remember any significant event happening on his date, nothing at all to confuse with his birthday.

"Well, um, actually..." Alfred looked meekly down, an extremely out of character move for the exuberant nation, and an act that made the Canadian's heart melt further at the sight. "I-I couldn't remember what day it was, so I asked Arthur..."

"...Arthur told you my birthday was today?" Matthew asked flatly. That was actually more than likely, now that he thought about it. Arthur always did try to spend time with him on his day. Well, he was obviously going to have to speak to his former guardian about his. But, the Canadian thought reflectively, at least the Englishman tried, however misguided his attempts may be. "Just try to remember the correct date next year." He finally sighed, deciding that it wasn't worth fussing over - it was only a birthday, after all.

"I will." The American promised solemnly before grinning and latching onto his younger brother once more. "Thanks, Mattie!"

Matthew just chuckled and allowed his twin to cuddle him. But for some reason, as they continued watching the movie, he couldn't help but feel as though he was forgetting something...

Meanwhile, back in Ottawa...

Arthur was still sitting on Matthew's sofa, having refilled his teacup many times in his former colony's absence. He sighed to himself and finally gave in to the urge to read one of the many novels that decorated the Canadian's shelves (most of which were gifts from the British nation). As he opened the book (an annotated copy of the works of Shakespeare), he pondered aloud, "I wonder when Matthew's coming back." Shrugging (although he would deny such ungentlemanly behaviour should anyone point it out), he began reading; the reason for his visit still eluding his memory.

...

**A.N.** Poor Arthur. It seems like I did nothing but pick on him in this fic. And yes, he smuggles his scones through customs - they wouldn't allow them in otherwise.

I apologize for the lateness of this fic - It took me longer than I thought to finish it, and then I just didn't get around to typing it up until now... I feel very ashamed of myself.

I'll leave it up to your imaginations as to whether or not this is a brotherly (platonic) love or twincest fic.

Any questions/comments? Please review! XD


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